Monday, December 28, 2015

We live in a democracy. Most
people probably know that.Unfortunately many people have not a clue how that democracy works.“How many states are in the union?” answer:
49.“How many senators does each state
have?” Answer: depends on how many districts are in the state.“Who is our U.S. Senator?”Answer: is it a man or a woman?Before you get too carried away with the
state of public school education, or blame it all on urban youth- Let me
explain.Each of these answers was
proffered by a college educated professional person between the ages of 25 and
upper 40’s.Scary isn’t it?I thought so too.

The success of a democracy is
predicated on an educated electorate.In
fact, this was the basic reason for a free education at public expense for all
Americans. We are failing miserably at that mission. Most native-born citizens
could not pass the citizenship test given to immigrants who seek to become
naturalized citizens.And it appears
from recent presidential debates that not a few of those running for the nation’s
highest office are familiar with our Constitution that if elected they would be
swear to uphold.Our democracy is at
risk not so much from people desperately risking their lives to cross our
southern border, nor from those terrorists groups half a world away, but from
ignorance from within that is racing like a killing virus through our
population.Don’t get me wrong illegal
immigrants and terrorist groups need attention, but unless the termites of
ignorance are stopped before they bore holes in the very fabric of our country,
there might not be much left once the illegals and terrorists get here.

The problem is serious enough
that Sandra Day O’Connor a retired Supreme Court justice in 2009 launched an
organization called iCivics.The purpose
of the non-profit is to promote civics education among students by providing
teachers with lesson plans, games and curricula to more than 100,000 registered
teachers.Recently Justice Sonia
Sotomayor has become a member of the organization’s Board of Directors.

With all this noise about
testing in reading and math, you would thing someone would worry about an
educated citizenry.No I am not talking
about the foolishness of the government exams that ask how old does one have to
be to run for governor.If I wanted to
run for governor I would find out.Lots
of people these days are jumping and shouting about their rights as
citizens.I’m not hearing much about the
responsibilities of citizens.If we are
not careful, the government of the people and by the people just might perish
from this earth.

Monday, December 21, 2015

The U.S. Department of
Education is falling over itself congratulating schools for a record 82%
graduation rate for 2014; that is an increase of 1% over 2013.Of course, graduation rates for
African-American students, Hispanic students, low income, English language
learners and children with disabilities all lag significantly behind those of
their white counterparts.Nonetheless,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is full of pride.

There are a couple of things
people should know about these graduation rates.First of all, in order to be counted as
graduating a student must graduate “on time”.That means within 4 years of starting high school.It is very good to have a high percentage of
your students graduating “on time”.So
even if you are a child with a disability, and even if that disability
guarantees you a free, appropriate (emphasis added) education
until you are 21, school systems will push you out the door if at all possible
so you can be counted as graduating on time.No matter that you have a legal right to more education that might
improve your chances of success as an adult once you have exited high school.

Another issue with the
emphasis on “on time” graduation rates is that while the graduation rates are
going up, there is no evidence that the readiness for college and careers of
high school graduates is also improving.In fact, institutions of higher education report little change in the
number of students who need remedial courses upon entering college.It seems even plain kids are being pushed out
the door rather than getting the education they need to succeed.

“Dropout factories”
complicate the problem.These are
schools where as many as two-thirds of students drop out of school before
completing their coursework.Often these
school buildings are in huge need of maintenance and the teachers are the least
prepared.Additionally, over 20 states
don’t provide any English/language arts or math courses that prepare students
for college and careers.Over half of
all states offer multiple paths to a diploma.That in itself is not bad.What
is bad is the failure to prepare students for the next phase of their lives,
regardless of how long it takes.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Competency based education,
an idea whose time came many years ago.But, hey, it is always good when people catch up.

U.S. businesses continue to
express concerns over the job-ready characteristics of high school and college
graduates. All the testing of the last
twenty years has not yielded a better employee. The Committee for Economic
Development, a non-partisan public- policy group of business education leaders,
convened a panel after a survey identified the skills most needed and most
difficult to find in the workplace.
Their conclusion was that critical thinking and problem-solving in job
applicants are the most essential but hardest to find. Other competencies being sought are the
ability to work with others of diverse backgrounds and teamwork/collaboration. Employers say that most STEM based job skills content can
be out of date within a year or two but the other skills will last the
lifetime.

Some of the problem might be
parenting trends. A dean of students for
a California university recently described a group of babied middle and upper
middle class freshmen students who looked to their parents to resolve and solve
all of their problems. She commented in her book that lower socio-economic students fared better because they were used to standing on their own.

Competency based education
does not require memorization.Students
work to demonstrate the use of knowledge through achieving certain
competencies.It is a continuing work in
progress.There are no tests as we know
them.Instead students do projects that
demonstrate understanding and use of knowledge.

The President just signed the
Every Student Succeeds Act.It is a
re-write of No Child Left Behind that left quite a few kids and teachers behind. However we are still on
the “accountability” train and our definition of accountability is only
testing.

The Harbour School in
Maryland has been doing Competency Based education for almost 20 years.It is working very well as demonstrated by
the success of its graduates.Good to
see some other folk are getting on board.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

We are burning out teachers
faster than we can produce them.We
spent a big chunk of the second half of the last century getting our best and
brightest to go into teaching as a career.And we are spending the first part of this century driving those people
out in droves.First we tried to bribe
them with higher salaries.Let’s face
it.Money has never been the primary attraction
for teachers.Sure people want a decent
wage with reasonable benefits, but no one ever expected to get rich teaching.

One of the differences
between any profession and other work is that professionals expect some portion
of control over their lives. Teachers are losing that control almost daily.

Pacing Guides are one of the
primary culprits.Pacing guides dictate
to teachers where that teacher should be each day in the curriculum guide.They are disrespectful to the good judgment
of a good teacher.Pacing guides insure
that content that will be on a test has been “covered” in classroom
instruction.In essence, they are in
place to cover the behind of a school system in case parents complain that
their children got low scores on the school-wide testing because the
information was not taught.Pacing
guides take away teacher judgment and do not insure learning.They probably get in the way of learning
since a teacher may have to move on because of the guide before the children
are ready.

Unions and school
administrations also conspire to reduce teacher control.Union officials decide, with some input from
the rank and file, what they will go to the mat for in the contract.Most union officers are no longer working in
the field.The union pays their
salaries.So it stands to reason, they
want to stir up enough mischief to show they have been at the table.System administrators speak for “the
taxpayers”.They regularly forget that
teachers are also taxpayers as are the families of the children schools serve.In truth,
both organizations should be concerned about what is best for the kids.The boots on the ground belong to teachers
and they have the least input into these negotiations.

Teachers need and want
professional development.It should help
them do their jobs better.What teachers
do not need and want is someone else telling them what professional development
they need.Yet school administrators are
regularly handing down proclamations about what teachers need to learn to do
their jobs better.It would be nice if
teachers were asked and allowed to develop their own professional development.

Finally as obvious as it may
seem, people become teachers because they want to teach children.Circumstances are conspiring to take the
interaction between kids and teachers away from being a human relationship to
being a data driven one. Teachers love to see faces light up; they love to be
the agent of change in a child’s life.They love to give and get hugs.Last weekend I met a young teacher from a Title I school.It is her first year as a classroom
teacher.She told me all about her
pacing guides.She also told me that she
has to tell her children they cannot touch her and she cannot touch them.She told me how sad it makes her feel because
she knows that many of her children come from homes where they get little
affection and she would love to give them a hug once in a while.

But she told me.I explained to them; I cannot touch you at
all- it is against the law.Doesn’t
really take all that much research to understand why the best and the brightest
aren’t staying around very long.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

What do you think?Is it worth spending money on the education
of a child with special needs?I mean
think about it, a special education probably costs around thirty to forty thousand
dollars a year.Public schools tell us
that it costs about three times as much to educate a child with disabilities
than it does a plain child.So
truthfully do you think the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.I mean let’s just talk money here, forget the
moral responsibility.We really do not
know how these kids are going to turn out as adults.I have seen a number of commentaries lately
from our more conservative colleagues who think this expenditure may be a waste
of money.

Here is another fiscally
responsible thought.High school costs
about twice what it costs to educate a younger child.All those additional courses and expensive
equipment don't come cheaply.Maybe
there would be some way to filter out the kids who aren’t worth the
investment.European countries have been
doing that for years.Kids are tested at
various plateau levels and those that don’t make the cut are shunted off to
more vocational style programs.Only
those who make the grade get to go on to college preparations.

Or maybe we could give the
kids some psychological screening and those who are going on to commit crimes
or even become serial killers would not need to have our tax money invested in
THEM!If we just knew in advance.

But the really big problem is
that we DON’T know in advance. How do we know which kids who flunk the test aren’t the really
creative thinkers who are going to discover some medical cure, some
technological advance or even more importantly teach us how to talk and
negotiate with each other to solve some serious world problems.

The fact is we don’t
know.We don’t know which of the kids
with disabilities will be that next brilliant engineer, a field where autism traits go a very long way toward success.We don’t know which of those smartass kids will become a wonderful
lawyer that will help us to understand each other and our relationship to the
law.It may just be that school skills
aren’t necessarily the ones that lead to breakthrough achievements that help us
all.

What we do know and what we
know for sure, is that a democracy believes in its people.A democracy believes in its people so deeply
that it allows all of them to vote to choose the leader.Even if those same people make foolish
decisions.There is no merit test for
voting.

If there is no merit test for
voting, the most important thing we do in a democracy, why on earth would we
have a perceived outcomes test for education.Oh right there is that money thing, what’s wasting a few million here
and there.We do that everyday in a
democracy too.It’s called government
contracts.So maybe we should think of
education as just one more government contract.And in a way, you know it is.It
is a contract between the individual and the democracy.We will educate you.Now you use that education to make us a
better democracy.The system has worked
pretty well so far.

About Me

I have been in the field of special education for 53 years. I have taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. I also have been an administrator of a local school system's special education department and the assistant superintendent for special education for the Maryland State Department of Education. Thirty-three years ago I started The Harbour School a special private school for children with autism, learning disabilities and other learning challenges.